HUMBOLDT — As the Humboldt Regional Newcomer Centre celebrates its first decade, its executive director said the centre has grown along with its clients.
Janine Hart, along with client service manager Elvircia Natlazo, were the first two employees at the centre when it opened in April 2010.
“We've had fantastic retention [of clients] in our region so that's something that we should all celebrate. We've seen people come in – like myself and Elvircia – who were temporary foreign workers to now being citizens,” Hart said.
“We've traveled many journeys with our clients and we feel like they are part of our family and we are part of their families. That's the great thing about being in a rural community providing the services that we provide, we really get to know our clients and their stories.”
The Humboldt Regional Newcomer Centre is a walk-in, free resource centre where staff help newcomers settle and integrate into their community. It not only serves Humboldt, but also the surrounding region.
Over the past 10 years, the centre has been building partnerships with organizations like Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the local school divisions, and other local stakeholders.
One of the services the centre now provides is the Settlement Worker in Schools program, which helps newcomer students families settle in the school and community.
“We're able now to provide settlement services to newcomer youth and children in school as well as any newcomer adult, that's new to our region,” Hart said. “It's exciting. We didn't ever think we would develop such a large organization for such a small community.”
As well, the centre has an after school program twice a month for students from Grade 2 to 6, runs youth programming during the summer, hosts a community garden and kitchen, and runs conversation circles and women's focus groups about employment.
The centre also sits on many advisory boards, both regionally and provincially, and has made presentations on its work at national conferences.
The Humboldt Regional Newcomer Centre does face challenges. One of those challenges is funding.
Hart said they can find gaps in the system, but often they don’t have the staff to address them, or the problem is not part of their mandate. This is why the centre is driven to work with others that can address the gaps.
“It's crucial for us to develop partnerships and work with other regional and community stakeholders.”
The economy is another challenge. Hart said that immigration in our region is built around the economic activity seen in local communities. When there’s problems in the economy, the jobs taken by newcomers are affected.
“If the economy goes down, our work shifts,” Hart said. “Then we're going from settlement to resettlement.”
The centre will be celebrating its anniversary throughout the year. On March 12, they had Ahmad Majid from Saskatoon do a spoken word performance at the gallery and at four local schools. In June, the centre will host a large barbeque.
Staff members of the centre will also be writing about a favourite city of theirs and will be open to chat about where they’re originally from.
